Page 116

Early Morning - Early Winter : Northeastern Space Rune

After dragging Father away from the pirates before the situation got more complicated, we quickly made it to shore and changed back to our dragon forms.

"Follow me closely, although this is an abandoned temple, the traps protecting the rune are still active. They are meant to even kill dragons so don't think you'll be able to just set one off without repercussions."

-I knew the dragons wouldn’t just leave an old relic like this out in the open but dang..- "Isn't that a bit excessive? What if someone accidentally sets one off?"

"If a dragon knows the path they won't set one off. Plus, just grazing a trap wouldn't kill a dragon, it would definitely injure them though."

Putting pause to the conversation, we finally got off the ground and started heading to the temple.

As we were flying away, I looked back towards the ground and noticed that I could see the clearing where the pirates were. -She saw me..-

Although it was only for a fraction of a second, the captain glanced in my direction.

But before I could think of anything, Father grabbed my attention again. "The traps are made so that dragons that want to get past have to work their way through something akin to a maze that they need to have memorized and can't go down a single wrong path."

"So what if there is an emergency and a dragon needs to go through quickly but they don't know the route?"

"Sucks for them then. They either take the right path or die."

-I guess tight security makes sense but..- "Why does Bahamut want the traps to even kill dragons?"

"Because not all dragons are the same.." Fathers demeanor darkened instantly. "Some aren't welcome.." He looked back at me with anger filled eyes.

Although it wasn't fear, his eyes made me feel uneasy.

"It seems I showed you something I shouldn't have.. sorry.."

"Haha.. it's fine Father.." With a nervous laugh, I quickly tried to change the subject. "So what was this temple built for?"

"Originally?" He looked back and saw me nod. "Well, before the great war, this island was quite special. It was known as a 'Place of Descendant' to the humanoids. In layman's terms, a place that humans believed a god had 'graced the world with its presence'.."

"You don't seem to view them in a positive light.."

"Of course not. The god they believed descended there was Tyr, the god of war. To humans he was also known as the god of the skies, a title we dragons don't take kind to."

-Ah..- "So was he against Bahamut?"

"We have no idea. Some people believe he is still around since he stayed out of the fight with Bahamut during the great war, but he has been quiet for a few thousand years now."

"So he at least survived Ragnarok?"

"Yes.. although some older dragons think he died from old injuries."

-Just how many gods were there..-

After flying for a short moment longer, we finally started coming up on the temple.

It was absolutely massive, towering a couple hundred meters into the air and spanning over a kilometer to either side.

Even as a dragon with my warped sense of scale, it simply felt gargantuan.

"How in the.." I could help but stare at it in awe.

Although it was huge and beautiful, with incredible stone carvings and gold and gems everywhere, it was clearly unbelievably old.

Vines had overtaken a huge portion of the temple with entire trees growing out of some cracks and it had a very clear amount of weathering.

The rooftops of the building had been completely weathered away leaving tons of holes into the building that gave the temple a strange abandoned beauty.

"I grew up being told it was built by humanoids but I don't believe it. Its too similar to old dragon architecture.." Father looked at the massive and beautiful building with a face of indifference.

-Is that indifference because he's seen it so many times or..-

"Well, follow me closely, and exactly. If you see me step somewhere, step in that exact spot behind me."

Giving a light nod, Father quickly dove down and landed on one of the outer towers of the building.

-Can this support my weight?- But before I could land, father jumped down into the temple. -Well.. I guess I don't need to..-

Deciding it'd be best if I didn't land, I simply hovered and dropped myself into the hole.

Once inside, I looked down and noticed I couldn't see Father. -Oh come on.. he seriously didn't even go a little slower..-

But this left me with a huge problem. -How do I get through..-

Looking forward down the huge hallway, I could see the general path that Father took since the dust and dirt on the ground had moved around from his movements but the exact spots to step weren’t readily noticeable.

-Well.. I guess I'll take it carefully... That seems like a spot Father stepped actually..- It was a spot where the dust was especially disturbed.

Hopping forward onto the spot, I balanced on one hand since I didn't know where else to put my feet.

-Well at least I was ri..-

As soon as I thought that, a giant rune lit up beneath me.

-Sh*t..-

*FWOOOSH*

A ridiculous blaze lit up around me, so hot it could melt metal like it was nothing.

-Thankfully I'm in my dragon form..- I was pretty much unscathed even without the use of vacuum magic because of my ridiculous natural heat resistance. -If I was in my human form I would have.. not had a great time..-

After the blaze continued for a bit, it finally subsided.

-Well.. if Im just gonna set them off, I might as well just speed through them..-

After observing how long it took the rune to actually activate, I figured I could just dash down the halls and follow Fathers path to get to the space rune.

-Welp, here goes nothing!- "Hold on Ilios!"

I quickly made sure Ilios was holding on and..

*Crack*

Immediately breaking the sound barrier, I disappeared from where I was.

Abusing the acceleration and mobility given to me by thrusters I flew down the hall at a ridiculous speed.

The hall wasn’t large enough for me to spread my wings but I was going so fast it didn't matter.

-Strength is like a drug..- The feeling of obliterating strong traps head on felt truly incredible.

A short instant later, I finally came up to a huge room bigger than anything I had seen up until now.

On the ground, there was a rune nearly a hundred meters wide and a small black sphere on a pedestal in the middle.

Standing next to it was Krystallo, Mother and Father.

I quickly slammed on the breaks at the edge of the room, accidentally shattering a huge chunk of the floor with it.

"There he is!" Mother ran over and hugged me like she thought I was dead.

"Is something wrong Mother?"

"Haah.. your numbskull of a Father didn't even go slow to show you the path.." She looked back at Father with eyes of anger.

"Calm down Mother. I'm sure it was an accident. Plus, I'm fine aren't I?"

"Hmph, if I didn't have to hold myself back to not break the temple I would have hit him through a mountain."

"Hehe.." The next to run up to me was Krystallo with a childish smile. "I knew you’d make it Brother!"

"Haha, I'm glad I didn't worry you." I reached down and lightly patted her on the head.

After putting Father in time out, Mother took the lead. “Haah.. now isn't the time to be gloomy..” She quickly glared at Father before looking back at Krystallo, Ilios and I with an excited smile. "Well, I believe it's time we go to Bahamut! Shall we?"